Let's Play Proust Questionnaire with Katherine Pont of Mine!

From the phantasmagoric imagination of the brilliant London-based designer, Katherine Pont, we bring you the newest collection for Mine entitled Elsie Moved in Circles! To add to the fun, Katherine has agreed to answer the Proust Questionnaire for us...

* What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
a broken heart

• Where would you like to live?

Just nestling into a new home so London is it for now. If I was to dream up a fictional escape, I would catch the zig zag train to the Rootabaga Country. My friend Vija introduced me to this story, and my drawings are looking a little zig zag.

An illustration from Carl Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories

* What is your idea of earthly happiness?

Tigers running circles until they turn the ground into melted butter. I had a copy of the little black sambo as a child, and today for all my running around, I wish my circles would do the same.

Tiger Butter, Delicious!

* To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Daydreaming in a procrastinating kind of way

* Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
The harlequin from "repent harlequin" said the tick tock man, coz he rebelled against the clock.

The Heroic Harlequin

• Who are your favorite characters in history?
The Epic does not move me so much but I'd say Christopher Columbus, because although the maps he studied were flat, he saw the world in it's circumference.

Columbus' Map

* Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
Alma nofear for bestowing me with her bravery, and Cat Power for singing about sitting on a ruin, but turning sadness into beauty.

Alma: Fears Not, Giant Masks!

Cat Power in Bogotá

* Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
The woman from Italo Calvino's Cosmic Cosmos who launched herself into the moon for unrequited love... or a less forlorn form of heroics would be maybe…

* Your favorite painter?
There are different modes of favouritism, but two of would have to be Henry Darger and Wolfi, two outsider artists with a love for laborious and intricate detail.

Henry Darger's Apartment

The Vivian Girls


Adolf Wölfli was an artist AND musician--seen on the book cover here with his paper trumpet


Amelie-Claress, 1908

* Your favorite musician?
Polly Jean Harvey or Eoin Oh Really ( O' Ruainigh ).

The inimitable PJ and the inimitable Mr.Cave

Eoin

* The quality you most admire in a man?
Boyish charm

• The quality you most admire in a woman?
Loyalty, friendship and bright eyes.

* Your favorite virtue?
Patience

• Your favorite occupation?
Day dreaming about being productive.

• Who would you have liked to be?
No pretenses for being anyone else… maybe a super hero version of me… I get this feeling when I wear my red tights.

Little Nemo, fellow fan of red tights ;-)

Let's Play The Proust Questionnaire with Kate Linstrom of objets trouvés!

I thought The Proust Questionnaire would be a fitting (and fun) interview format for fellow Francophile Kate Linstrom, the designer behind the label objets trouvés. You can check out Kate's exquisitely intricate styles for sale at Le Train Bleu and visit her own site to learn more.

• What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Confinement. Having basic freedoms taken away and being monitored every hour of your life would be insufferable.

• Where would you like to live?
Paris (specifically in Le Marais district).


• What is your idea of earthly happiness?
Lifelong friends.

• To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Trying to squeeze too many things into one day.

• Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Holden Caulfield (Catcher in the Rye) and Bernard Mickey Wrangle, an outlaw bomber known as the Woodpecker in Still Life with Woodpecker.

• Who are your favorite characters in history?
Cleopatra

• Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
Joan of Arc’s story is incredible.

• Your favorite painter?
Ooh this is a tough one, too many to choose from!
I love the usual suspects: Pablo Picasso & Henri Matisse and then from there the list could go on forever…Wassily Kandinsky, Takashi Murakami, Agnes Martin, Julie Mehretu, Kehinde Wiley…it’s hard to pick a favorite!

• Your favorite musician?
Another tough one to narrow down. Arcade Fire, Serge Gainsbourg, Bat for Lashes, Beatles, Beirut, Cat Power, The Cure, Bob Dylan, The Decemberists, Duran Duran, Wilco, Jenny Lewis, Morrissey, Prince, Elliot Smith, Thom Yorke.

• The quality you most admire in a man?
Honesty & Sense of Humor

• The quality you most admire in a woman?
Stability & Sense of Humor

• Your favorite virtue?
Love

• Your favorite occupation?
Traveling & Designing

• Who would you have liked to be?
I find Cleopatra fascinating, it would have been wild to be in her shoes.

Yeojin Bae Interview

What kind of girl are you designing for?
This collection is very much for myself and my girlfriends. We love to dress up, wear something unique and appreciate beautiful fabrics and cut.

You worked for several notable designers like Marc Jacobs, etc. How did they influence you and what did you learn there?
I spent many years working for other designers and it was very exciting to see the design process of other creative people. I interned during a fun period at Marc Jacobs when they were setting up his diffusion line Marc.

When and why did you decide to launch your own label?
It really felt like now or never. I had built up so much experience over the last 14 years, but at age 30 felt ready to tackle my own business.

You love to travel–how does this inspire you and affect your designs?
Absolutely love to travel. My husband is from France so we go there a few times a year, and I love NY for its amazing energy. I have sourced lots of interesting fabrics and trims from India , Morocco and Budapest ..I think it’s important to see what is happening around the world.